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tar/doc/tar-snapshot-edit.texi
Sergey Poznyakoff 01cf5c5315 New file
2007-06-16 12:09:59 +00:00

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@c This is part of the paxutils manual.
@c Copyright (C) 2007 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
@c This file is distributed under GFDL 1.1 or any later version
@c published by the Free Software Foundation.
@cindex Device numbers, changing
@cindex snapshot files, editing
@cindex snapshot files, fixing device numbers
Sometimes device numbers can change after upgrading your kernel
version or recofiguring the harvare. Reportedly this is the case with
some newer @i{Linux} kernels, when using @acronym{LVM}. In majority of
cases this change is unnoticed by the users. However, it influences
@command{tar} incremental backups: the device number is stored in tar
snapshot files (@pxref{Snapshot Files}) and is used to determine whether
the file has changed since the last backup. If the device numbers
change for some reason, the next backup you run will be a full backup.
@pindex tar-snapshot-edit
To minimize the impact in these cases, GNU @command{tar} comes with
the @command{tar-snapshot-edit} utility for inspecting and updating
device numbers in snapshot files. The utility, written by
Dustin J.@: Mitchell, is available from
@uref{http://www.gnu.org/@/software/@/tar/@/utils/@/tar-snapshot-edit.html,
@GNUTAR{} home page}.
To obtain the device numbers used in the snapshot file, run
@smallexample
$ @kbd{tar-snapshot-edit @var{snapfile}}
@end smallexample
@noindent
where @var{snapfile} is the name of the snapshot file (you can supply as many
files as you wish in a single command line ).
To update all occurrences of the given device number in the file, use
@option{-r} option. It takes a single argument of the form
@samp{@var{olddev}-@var{newdev}}, where @var{olddev} is the device number
used in the snapshot file, and @var{newdev} is the corresponding new device
number. Both numbers may be specified in hex (e.g., @samp{0xfe01}),
decimal (e.g., @samp{65025}), or as a major:minor number pair (e.g.,
@samp{254:1}). To change several device numbers at once, specify them
in a single comma-separated list, as in
@option{-r 0x3060-0x4500,0x307-0x4600}.
Before updating the snapshot file, it is a good idea to create a backup
copy of it. This is accomplished by @samp{-b} option. The name of the
backup file is obtained by appending @samp{~} to the original file name.
An example session:
@smallexample
$ @kbd{tar-snapshot-edit /var/backup/snap.a}
file version 2
/tmp/snap: Device 0x0306 occurs 634 times.
$ @kbd{tar-snapshot-edit -b -r 0x0306-0x4500 /var/backup/snap.a}
file version 2
@end smallexample